The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 7

mmm (Tbt pcriinjtsa JTrtr prrsi Wednesday. October 23. 1996 PAGE 7A SPEiKOUT It 1 READERS HnttioRwJmForwr lktFthru L.rfc. i lk 1 "tPTi fcM re fi ifc-ir Lrrp ll IIlIIIIE A1; k.mM.'w.wi;! II I I 11 111 B.i05;rv6N.uu: 0 Peter Findley of Essex Junction The Free Pms uniicj relcri trod question (tut he aAeJ ill three cndiiirv LaA their anm here every Wcinrii) till 1 icxlK Dj NEXT WEEKS QUESTION Vufarr aphy and cyiucim art an all-time hih. Ik koU ym restructure campaign ftruncing? You ask the Candidates PirttT Findlej povrd ttu question: When the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tai Reform issued its report to the president in 1994.

the group staled. "Unless changes are made, projected outlaws for entitlements and interest on the national debt iU consume all tax revenues collected by the federal government by 2012." Since have no control over the interest, how would you propose to reduce the cost of entitlements? Mite M.l.'M:lg7T 4 if A a "1 111 I Reforms must be made to entitlements if this nation is to continue as an economic power. The question is how to balance the reform of our largest entitlement programs. Medicaid. Medicare and welfare, without jeopardizing crucial services and benefits.

It can and must be done. Medicaid and Medicare need to be strongly protected while at the same time streamlined. The federal government has an important role in fostering reforms that make these programs more efficient and beneficial to recipients without hurting the quality or quantity of care. In many cases this can be best by reducing the bureaucracy in Washington DC, returning power to the states and letting them have more control over Medicaid and Medicare spending. Our nation's governors want more flexibilty to develop their ow programs for the poor and I support this.

We must also crack dow on fraud and abuse within Medicaid and Medicare. We've all heard too many stories of doctors and health care recipients taking advantage of the system for personal gain. 1 also support the biggest entitlement reform of the 104th Congress, welfare reform. The final legislation which was endorsed by congressional lead- First, we can have an impact on interest rates by lowering the federal deficit, moving toward a balanced budget and eventually lowering the federal debt. As chairman of the 52-membcr House Progressive Caucus, I have helped lead the effort to balance the budget in a way that is fair.

That is why I strongly opposed the Gingrich-Republican effort to balance the budget by slashing Medicare, Medicaid, education and veterans programs, while giving huge tax breaks to the rich. If we focus deficit reduction on eliminating the SI 25 billion a year we spend on corporate welfare, and cut back on wasteful and unnecessary military spending, we could move toward a balanced budget without hurting the elderly, the children, working people or the poor. Secondly, the United States is an enormously wealthy country. Unfortunately, however, we have the most unfair distribution of wealth and income of any major nation. The richest 1 percent of the population now ow ns 42 percent of the wealth, more than the bottom 90 percent.

It is absurd for anyone to be talking about slashing important entitlement programs for the elderly and the sick while leaving alone an unfair tax system which enables I disagree with the premise in the question. We do have control over interest on the national debt To the extent that we decrease the national debt, we decrease the interest we have to pay each year on that debt. The president has decreased the debt by approximately 60 percent in just four years: the deficit has fallen from $290 billion at the beginning of the president's administration to an estimated Si 17 billion this year. If vie stay the course the president has put us on 10 million new jobs, high wage jobs on the rebound, unemployment down to percent, inflation averaging just 1.7 percent per year, low long-term interest rates, reduction in the size and cost of the federal government we ill be able to afTord to fund the entitlement programs. Which is not to say that cost saving reforms are not in order.

It is possible to streamline the administration of Medicare. We must fight Medicare fraud and continue to explore the restructuring of Medicare from a strictly government-financed and regulated program into a market based system, in which Medicare beneficiaries can choose from an array of competing private plan options in addition to the current fce-for-scrvices system. All plans millionaires to become richer at the expense of almost evervone else. In terms of Social Security, our largest entitlement program, we should be aware that the Social Security Trust Fund is projected to be solvent for the next 34 years, until 2030. As our population ages, however, it is clear that we will have to make incremental adjustments in Social Security taxes and benefits as Congress has done in the past.

The Social Security program has been enormously successful in lowering the poverty rate among senior citizens. It is a program which works and, hile it will need changes, must be protected. The elderly people in this country have the right to know that they can live out their last years in dignity and economic security. Bernard Sanders, an independent, is the mcumtk'nt Congressman for I ermont. public and private should compete under the same rules for enrollment (coverage, marketing, reporting requirements, etc.) on the basis of price, quality and serv ice, thereby making plans more responsive to beneficiary needs and holding down costs.

We need to carefully explore privatization of the Social Security system. Social Security participants have an implicit return on their Social Security taxes of about 2.5 percent; funds invested in stocks and bonds earned a pretax return of more than 9 percent over the past three decades. Privatizing Social Security would cut required contributions dramatically, leaving employees with more disposable income and guaranteeing the financial viability of the system. Jot Lung, a Demoerat. is a former slate Environmental Commissioner.

ers as well as President Clinton and Gov. Dean, and opposed by Congressman Sanders, is an important part of getting entitlement spending under control. The current welfare system has failed those it was designed to help, and the new welfare proposal should bring costs under control and get people back to work. While the legislation wasn't perfect, it significantly reduces entitlement spending while humanely breaking the cycle of generational welfare and dependency. This welfare law is not the end of reform, but the beginning of it and its effects must be monitored.

Entitlement reform is probably the most important fiscal problem facing this nation. 1 will continue to work in a bipartisan basis to make good and fair changes to these important programs. Susan Sneetser. a Republuan, is state senator from Chittenden Couniv Antifrwa ITi TRIPLE DISCOUNT SiilH Burl. S3 few Up Electrical Heating Tires ON MIDAS' NEW SHOCKS WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU TODAY? Every Monday in Business Monday ChtlBurlmgtonjfrff Press A STRUTS EXHAUST VL Join! SUSPENSION ALIGNMENT ABS BRAKES THERE'S NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT! DMTRODIIIJCIIKIG NESCAFE ESPRESSO ESOASTT COFFEE READS AFG-0EIN VOID ARE mm mm 1 1 ff LsMflLI jgg hHd MBfcJNi? iOw (J NEW NESCAFE sj a 'T CERTIFICATE If 73 3 AND HERE'S PRESENT OF $2.00 OFF ANY NEW NESCAFE ESPRESSO ROAST COFFEE CONSUMfl ttm on cevoon par pmdhami Th coupon pood only on product ttzn ond Sovon moVxHtd REGULAR OR uM- toe pu co utm DECAFFEINATED SttZZ 23023 I m3 gr 0 1091, rww upon rvum ConWMtT WKft pfly KHM (OX.

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